E-commerce Checkout Page Optimization: 8 Steps to Help You Win More Sales

According to statistics, the global cart abandonment rate for e-commerce is nearly 70%. There are many reasons why shoppers choose not to buy your products after they have added the products to their carts.

The trust issue is a significant reason. When your site doesn't show credibility or your company service offers poor customer experience, your clients are more likely to abandon their carts.

Other reasons can be:

• hidden charges;
• complex checkout process;
• poor choice of payment options;
• lack of motivation to make the purchase immediately;
• non-interactive forms;
• obligatory account creation;
• no price protection guarantee.

In this article, we will go through how you can optimize your e-commerce checkout page by taking eight actionable steps.

Let’s win more sales!

1. Increase customers trust by securing your website: obtain SSL certificate

As per security metrics, 80% of payment-card-related investigations conducted in 2017 were of e-commerce data breaches. While every internet user is vulnerable to being attacked by the malefactors, the most vulnerable industry is e-commerce that experiences 32.4% attacks in various forms.

Now, if you assess consumers’ behavior, 71% of customers say they would leave an organization after a data breach. Trust is an essential element in business to gain customers as well as to retain them and to generate sales.

It is necessary to have an SSL certificate on your website as it secures online transactions between the server and the browser. Different SSL certificates are made to suit different business requirements, and the EV SSL bears the highest level of validation.

To gain more trust, you can install an EV SSL Certificate that will assure visitors that the website has the highest validation and is safe for online transactions. EV SSL comes with the green bar in the browser address bar, making security prominent immediately. It also shows a company name in the address bar as well as a padlock before https://.

Moreover, it can rank your website higher on search engines. In fact, SEO has a 14.6% conversion rate compared to 1.7% for traditional outbound methods such as cold-calling or direct mail.

2. Display shipping cost upfront

One of the top reasons why people abandon their carts is because they’re confronted with hidden costs for shipping and taxes. Display shipping costs as early as possible and protect your customers from unpleasant surprises when it comes time to complete their purchase.

You can try to overcome the high shipping costs objection by displaying shipping cost estimates early on the checkout. Or add a shipping calculator to product pages to let your customers choose the most convenient shipping method with an acceptable cost.

3. Simplify the checkout process

A lengthy checkout process is something you should avoid. As per the chart above, 10% of users abandon their carts due to the lengthy checkout process.

The image below is the Sierra Designs checkout page. It provides a simple summary of the order and prompts the user to progress through to the next step of the checkout.

You can also reduce the number of steps that customers should follow to complete the purchase.  One Step Checkout extension allows you to create your custom checkout page:

• Make your own design;
• Add, delete, and replace blocks;
• Customize block titles;
• Make data-driven decisions by analyzing statistical data.

Simplify your checkout and increase your conversion rate!

4. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Often, customers find out that they simply can’t pay because there’s no payment option they use. 25% of U.S. online shoppers abandon their carts because their preferred payment option was not offered.

Though credit and debit card payments are the two most popular methods, consider providing alternatives. Due to the rising number of online threats, many customers are not willing to share their credit card information online.

Offering multiple payment options can also attract new customers and increase your independence by not having to rely only on one or two sources. It also increases the chances of higher sales in the near future.

Of course, all payments must be secure. So we offer you the Stripe Payment plugin. This plugin supports 3D secure 2.0 and meets all requirements of the Payment Service Directive (PSD2) and Strong Customer Authentication.

Provide your customers with safe payments!

5. Create Urgency

People are wired to act quickly without overthinking during emergencies. Thus, creating urgency can drive sales. When customers perceive the lack of items, they are more likely to act and purchase.

To create urgency, you can limit the time available to complete the purchase, display low stock status, or run limited-time discounts as in the image below:

6. Make Your Forms More Interactive

As per MDS, interactive forms can result in better checkout conversion rates. For making your forms more interactive, consider using floating labels.

They also take up much less vertical space and create an illusion of containing less information to fill out, resulting in better conversion rates.

7. Remove the Obligatory Account Creation Process

Many shoppers back out from purchasing, if you make it obligatory to create an account before checkout. Allow customers to checkout without creating an account. On average, following this strategy leads to a $300 million revenue increase per online retailer.

Also, It Works research reveals that the need to create an account before buying anything is an impediment for 23% of customers. If you want to increase the number of registrations, you can highlight a special offer for users who complete the registration process. But make the registration quick and simple.

But sometimes you need to collect customers' data before they make an order. For example, to be sure that all orders will be sent to adults, you usually collect the date of birth through the registration form. Consider the ability to register in your Magento store via social networks. Social Login extension supports Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Amazon, PayPal, Twitch, and Apple ID with the add-on. This plugin allows your customer to log in or register in one click, and at the same time, you can gather the needed customers' info.

Enable one-click registration with Social Login extension!

8. Offer Price Protection Guarantee

Your customers want to be sure that they are getting the best deal. They get frustrated when they find the same product at a lower price on another website.

If you have a price protection guarantee sign on your website, it will win more sales. It will protect them from price drops, and when the price goes down within a certain period, they can get a refund.

This policy is implemented by many companies, including Honda. It can also build customer trust from boosting sales.

Moreover, it's important to make your return policy notable. RMA extension allows you to add all the details to the product page or the shopping cart. This plugin lets you make refunds smooth. Customers will get detailed instructions for every step of refund. Also, your clients can ask you any questions in the chat.

Increase customer loyalty by offering clear and seamless refunds!

Winding-Up

The 8 tips mentioned above are not all, but applying these strategies can drive e-commerce checkout page optimization.

Just creating a product and garnering a huge target audience is not nearly enough. You will have to work to retain your customers and generate sales.

80% of online shoppers stop doing business with a company because of poor customer experience. And 33% of American customers say they'll consider switching companies following a single instance of poor service.

So, your goal should be to keep your customers happy!